I finished losing 100 pounds two years ago, and had myself convinced that the journey was finished and behind me. I've since discovered that I don't have myself or my life completely figured out, the evidence being the 45 pounds I've put back on.

I'm on the journey again, but with a different set of eyes than those I used on my first journey.

I hope you'll join me in my pursuit of a realistically healthy and joyful life!

Friday, May 4

As part of the First Place 4 Health (FP4H) program, I’m back
on tracking my food.It’s been a while
since I regularly have tracked what I’m eating.

Sometimes I wasn’t tracking at all.Those weeks I found that I was certainly able
to still eat healthy (I have practically memorized calorie info for some foods
because of all the tracking I’ve done in the past).However, I noticed I was more likely to eat
more than I needed and to justify that not-very-healthy foods were a better
choice than they were.For example, when
you’re not tracking, it’s easy to think, “That piece of banana bread wasn’t so
bad.It had banana in it—it’s
practically a serving of fruit!”Then in
reality, that piece of banana bread was a 400 calorie snack followed up by an
800 calorie lunch.

But even the weeks that I only tracked for a couple days, I
found that tracking my food was a great way to maintain a realistic view of the
decisions I made around food.

The gal who leads my FP4H group kept recommending
MyFitnessPal.com.I was hesitant to even
try it out.I have tried other food
tracking sites, and I find most of them very frustrating.Either their food database is small making it
hard to find any foods that I eat, or it’s plastered with so many “Lose belly
fat!” ads that you can barely see the site, or it doesn’t let you set any
custom settings making it useless to tailor to myself.

But I am loving MyFitnessPal.com!Not only can I custom set all the nutritional
and fitness settings, but their food database is amazing.I was able to specifically set my daily max
calories, and my percentages of Protein/Carbs/Fat.You can even set the nutritional limits (like
a sodium intake limit), and then tell it to track that on your food diary
page.The display is really easy to read
and browse, and there’s even a print option if you have to take your diary with
you (like to a meeting).

There’s also a great community!You can invite your friends and they can see
your food and fitness diaries.Oh!AND there’s a phone app for it (on both
iPhone and Windows Phone).

Honestly, this site is hands down the best calorie tracker I’ve
ever used (it even beats the 20/20 Lifestyles tracker which was previously my
favorite).If you decide to join,
message me and we’ll encourage one another!

Wednesday, May 2

On Monday I had my first First Place 4 Health (FP4H) meeting.The program is hosted through my church, and
it really appealed to me for a couple of reasons.

FP4H has a whole-life kind of approach. The goal is to get all the aspects of me
healthy: my mind, my soul, my strength and my heart.Think of it as mental, spiritual, physical
and emotional wellness.

I had mentioned giving Overeaters Anonymous (OA) a try
(which I want to go into detail later), but I was having a hard time with their
program.I kept feeling like a lot of my
eating issues were just symptoms of spiritual and emotional sicknesses.I was trying to address the root issues, but
I kept feeling like the OA laser focus on eating issues was getting in the way.

So I’m trying out FP4H, and I’m excited that I get to do it
with ladies that I know from my church!There’s about 15 of us (from my church and other churches as well as
online).We were measured and weighed on
Monday.I weighed in at 216, and I was
once again hit with disappointment in myself.But at least I’m pursuing help and health!

I’ve already found myself in need of a careful attitude
check.I love to learn, but sometimes I
can get stubborn and convinced myself that I already know everything.I’ve learned a lot in the past couple years
about eating healthy and exercising, but I need to empty myself and come to my meetings
with a humble spirit.